#A Swing and a Miss – Review Geek

About a year ago, I reviewed the Fluidstance Slope desktop whiteboard and loved it. When the company took that concept a step further with this Lift, which combined a whiteboard with a laptop stand, I knew I had to jump on it. Unfortunately, it’s not the hit I hoped it would be.

The idea is pretty straightforward: It’s a laptop stand that you can write on. It’s the same construction and aesthetic as the Slope, so you can get all matchy-matchy if you want both. You might want to get a bigger desk first, though.

The Lift’s writing area is about 6.25 inches tall, with the entire unit coming in at around 9 inches tall. It’s 11.5 inches wide on the front side, and a whopping 10.5 inches deep. That last measurement is key here because this is a pretty thicc boi—it takes up a lot of desk space. That may not be so bad if you use your laptop for most work and are looking to build a more ergonomic setup with an external keyboard and mouse, but if you pair your laptop with an external screen, you’ll be looking at a pretty big chunk of your desk taken by the Lift.

But that’s really not even my biggest grievance with the Lift stand. My issue comes with the writable area—it’s just too vertical to comfortably write on. It’s not completely upright like a wall-mounted whiteboard would be, but the angle also isn’t subtle enough to write on without crooking your wrist into an uncomfortable position.

If you use the Lift as a laptop stand without an external monitor, it’s hard to write on without getting your elbows all over the external keyboard. It’s funky. It’s a little better if you pair your laptop with an external screen and set the Lift off to the side, but then it can get awkward to write on if you’re too far away. I couldn’t really find an ideal situation here, save for not using it as a laptop stand and just setting it off to the side of my desk … which totally defeats the purpose. In that case, the Slope is a much better choice. On the upside, if you do find a way to use it comfortably, it’s very stable when you write on it. The rubber feet on the bottom do a good job of holding it in place.

Of course, I don’t want this to come off as completely negative. It’s not a bad product—it’s just not ideal. If you’re looking for a “perfect” solution, this ain’t it, homeboy. It’s fine as a laptop stand, but if that’s all you want it for, there are likely better, more compact solutions on the market.

But if you’re looking for something to quickly jot notes on and don’t care about how tidy those notes are, you might love the Lift. As bulky as it is, it’s still more compact than having a separate laptop stand and desktop whiteboard. And for that, I have to give credit to Fluidstance—this is a unique product. I couldn’t find anything else like it on the market.

So, for a very specific user—the one who is a full-time laptop user, wants a whiteboard, and doesn’t have room for a stand and separate whiteboard—the Lift is the best option. Because it’s the only option. For everyone else, however, you might want to consider the Slope instead.

Or, you know, a notebook.